Wild About Shapes

Acetate inserts—printed with abstract shapes in pink, teal, and yellow—transform Fischer’s equally abstract screen prints into animals in a process that’s graceful in its execution and delightful in its simplicity. The acetate pages alternate with paper ones, and where they overlap, handsome portraits of elephants, turtles, snails, and other creatures emerge, while simultaneously introducing basic color theory. (Laying an acetate sheet printed with a yellow Rorschach-like blob atop a wavy teal shape creates a green octopus with elegantly curling tentacles, for example.) Clever and rewarding, this ranks with Hervé Tullet’s Press Here and Rufus Butler Seder’s Scanimation series as a book whose deceptively simple interactivity creates a reading experience that’s nothing short of magic. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)